Latin American Studies Jump To: Jump To: Program Offerings Minor Offering type Minor The Program in Latin American Studies promotes interdisciplinary study and seeks to foster knowledge of and experience in Latin America.Courses are offered by the Departments of African American Studies, Anthropology, Art and Archaeology, Comparative Literature, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Economics, English, French and Italian (appropriate French courses only), History, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Program in Latino Studies and the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS). Through various approaches in the humanities and the social and natural sciences, the program seeks to guide students toward an understanding of Latin American arts, cultures, histories, socioeconomic conditions, politics and natural environments. The student's work is supervised by a departmental adviser and is combined with a departmental program in a regular major.PLAS offers funding support for student travel to Latin America for research purposes. First-year students and sophomores are eligible to apply for exploratory research grants and juniors can apply for senior thesis research funding. Goals for Student Learning Latin America and the Caribbean are extraordinarily diverse areas, encompassing a wide variety of cultures, economies, political traditions, environments and languages. The Program in Latin American Studies brings a global perspective to campus, offering an opportunity to engage one of the world’s most rapidly changing regions. The minor in the Program in Latin American Studies is designed to encourage and support new scholarship, spark dialogue and promote first-hand engagement with leading scholars and creative thinkers. Coursework spans topics and disciplines and sheds light on multiple facets of the region. The program aims to foster greater knowledge about Latin America and the Caribbean and the contributions of these areas to the global community. Goals for Student LearningTo identify some of the main cultural, historical, political, economic, environmental and social configurations of Latin America.To understand the diversity and specificities of Latin America’s sub-regions and countries, such as the Southern Cone, Brazil, the Andean region, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.To critically evaluate Latin America’s position in the Americas and within a larger international context.To effectively apply interdisciplinary research methodologies and models of inquiry to understand cultural, historical, political, economic, environmental and social processes in Latin America and the Caribbean, including their diasporic communities in the United States.To acquire international experience in Latin America and the Caribbean through travel and fieldwork.To encourage advanced language proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, French or intermediate proficiency in a Native American language spoken in the region. Admission to the Program Students majoring in any department may enter the minor program. A student normally enters the program after declaring their major in their sophomore year, although entrance in the fall of junior year is not precluded. Interested students should complete our online enrollment form. Program of Study In order to receive a minor in Latin American Studies, students must fulfill the following requirements:Completion of the language requirement in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or two semesters of a Native American language such as Maya, Nahuatl, Quechua or Mapuche. Students who placed out of the language requirement in Spanish, Portuguese or French must take a 200-level, or higher, course in the same language, or a course in another language spoken in the region (for example, if the language requirement was fulfilled in Spanish, the students can take a course in Portuguese, French or Quechua).Five courses cross-listed with LAS or with a strong Latin American, Caribbean or Brazilian component, of which one must be a seminar and one must be in the humanities. Students can double-count up to two courses with their major. Alternatively, students can fulfill the minor requirements by taking four courses and, in lieu of a fifth course, completing one of the following options:Complete a senior thesis on a Latin American or Caribbean topic, or with significant Latin American and/or Caribbean content;Have a meaningful, at least 6- to 10-week-long, structured experience in Latin America or the Caribbean through an internship, an independent research project or a service project. After they return, students must submit a 1,000-word memo describing their international experience and its relevance to the LAS minor. Participation in the Bridge Year Program in a Latin American country may count toward the fulfillment of this requirement.Write a 6,000–8000-word research paper on Latin America or the Caribbean. Students can submit a relevant junior research paper or expand a course final paper under the supervision of a PLAS faculty member. Faculty Director Gabriela Nouzeilles Executive Committee João Biehl, Anthropology Eduardo L. Cadava, English Vera S. Candiani, History Beatriz Colomina, Architecture Javier E. Guerrero, Spanish & Portuguese Hendrik Lorenz, Philosophy Gabriela Nouzeilles, Spanish & Portuguese Christina P. Riehl, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Deborah J. Yashar, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Associated Faculty José L. Avalos, Chemical and Biological Eng Yarimar Bonilla, Effron Center Study of America Benjamin H. Bradlow, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Monica C. Bravo, Art and Archaeology Natalia Castro Picón, Spanish & Portuguese Matias D. Cattaneo, Oper Res and Financial Eng Miguel A. Centeno, Sociology Rafael Cesar, Spanish & Portuguese Fernando Codá Marques, Mathematics Susana Draper, Comparative Literature Patricia Fernández-Kelly, Sociology Ada Ferrer, History Amelia Frank-Vitale, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Agustin Fuentes, Anthropology Thomas Fujiwara, Economics Rubén Gallo, Spanish & Portuguese Mario I. Gandelsonas, Architecture Lorgia García Peña, Effron Center Study of America Filiz Garip, Sociology Maria E. Garlock, Civil and Environmental Eng Hanna Garth, Anthropology Reena N. Goldthree, African American Studies Bryan R. Just, Art Museum Thomas D. Kaufmann, Art and Archaeology Christina H. Lee, Spanish & Portuguese John B. Londregan, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Rosina A. Lozano, History Pedro Meira Monteiro, Spanish & Portuguese Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Computer Science Isadora M. Mota, History F. Nick Nesbitt, French & Italian Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Classics Pamela A. Patton, Art and Archaeology Nicolás Pereda, Lewis Center for the Arts Grigore Pop-Eleches, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Rachel L. Price, Spanish & Portuguese Alejandro W. Rodriguez, Electrical & Comp Engineering Irene V. Small, Art and Archaeology Garry Sparks, Religion Maria Micaela Sviatschi, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Rocío Titiunik, Politics Guadalupe Tuñón, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Corinna Zeltsman, History Sits with Committee Fernando E. Acosta-Rodriguez Lecturer Grazzia Grimaldi Mauro G. Lazarovich Isabella Vergara C Visiting Lecturer with Rank of Professor David R. Mares For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website. Courses LAS 401 - Latin American Studies Seminar (also LAO 401/SPA 412) Not offered this year LA The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff LAS 402 - Latin American Studies Seminar Not offered this year SA The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff LAS 403 - Latin American Studies Seminar Not offered this year LA The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff LAS 404 - Latin American Studies Seminar (also POR 411/SPA 410) Not offered this year LA The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff LAS 405 - Latin American Studies Seminar Not offered this year The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff LAS 406 - Latin American Studies Seminar Not offered this year The seminar will concentrate upon themes and topics in Latin American history, politics, society, literature, and/or culture. The focus will vary from year to year. Staff AAS 244 - Introduction to Pre-20th Century Black Diaspora Art (also ART 262/LAS 244) Fall CDLA This course focuses on the networks, imaginaries, and lives inhabited by Black artists, makers, and subjects from the 18th through 19th centuries, revolving around the Caribbean (particularly the Anglophone Caribbean), North America, and Europe. We will reflect on how pre-20th-century Black artists are written into history or written out of it. We will explore the aesthetic innovation of these artists and the visionary worlds they created and examine their travels, their writings, along with the social worlds and communities they formed. The course incorporates lectures and readings and, if possible, museum visits. AAS Subfield: AACL, GRE A. Kesson ART 221 - Art of Hispania (also LAS 221) Not offered this year LA Painting, sculpture, and architecture in the Spanish-speaking world from 1492 to 1810. The great flowering of Spanish art, as represented by such figures as El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya, in its cultural and historical context, including developments in Latin America. Some attention to the art of Portugal. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff ART 267 - Mesoamerican Art (also ANT 366/LAS 267) Not offered this year LA This course acquaints students with the art, architecture, and archaeology of ancient Mexico and Central America. The course considers a wide range of cultures spanning from the first arrival of humans at the end of the Upper Paleolithic period through the 16th century Spanish invasion. Major culture groups to be considered include Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec. Precepts will include theoretically-focused discussions, debate regarding contested scholarly interpretations, and hands-on work with objects at the Princeton University Art Museum. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. B. Just ART 366 - Ancient Arts of Mexico (also LAS 366) Not offered this year LA Detailed examination of the Pre-Columbian arts of the indigenous civilizations of Mexico. The first part of the course will examine the architecture, monumental art, and craft art of the Aztecs and their contemporaries, the Huaztecs, Tarascans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Mayas. The rest of the course is designed as a survey of the major Mexican art traditions that preceded them. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff ART 443 - Global Exchange in Art and Architecture (also LAS 443) Not offered this year LA Examines the global exchange in art and architecture between and among the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the period 1492-1800. The course focuses on the geographical, historical, religious, anthropological, and aesthetic aspects of issues such as cultural encounters, diffusion, transculturation, regionalism, and related topics. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar. T. Kaufmann CEE 463 - A Social and Multi-Dimensional Exploration of Structures (also LAS 463) Not offered this year The class has pedagogical objectives related to the spatial relations of dimensions and time (sustainability and society). It develops the students' skills in drawing, model making, writing, oral communication, and advanced engineering analysis. The course is focused on a study of one theme that changes every year. Within each theme engineering calculations of designs will be made through advanced analyses. The social context will be studied, a site visit will be made during break week, models of a few significant works will be created and placed on display as part of a small exhibition. Prerequisites: CEE205 and CEE312 M. Garlock COM 327 - Modernism in Fiction (also LAS 327) Not offered this year LA A study of early to mid-20th century fiction, focusing on the question of modernity both as a literary and a historical-philosophical problem. Attention will be given especially to experimentation with literary form and the relation of narrative forms to specific cultural practices. Authors read in the course include Joyce, Woolf, Kafka, Proust, Beckett, Borges. Students will also study essays reflecting the debates of the period (Brecht, Adorno, Lukács, Benjamin). One three-hour seminar. Staff ECO 371 - Topics in Country and Regional Economics (also LAS 346) Not offered this year SA These courses will provide an opportunity to apply the concepts and methods studied in economics core courses and electives to analyze the economic problems confronting particular countries or groups of countries. The choice of the country or region, and of the economic problem, will change from year to year. Prerequisites depend on topic. Two 90-minute lectures. Staff EEB 332 - Pre-Columbian Peoples of Tropical America and Their Environments (also LAS 350) Not offered this year SA An intensive course on the pre-European history of Amerind cultures and their environments in the New World tropics. Topics include the people of tropical America; development of hunting/gathering and agricultural economies; neotropical climate and vegetation history; and the art, symbolism, and social organization of native Americans. Daily lectures, field trips, and laboratory experiences and incorporates methods and problems in field archaeology, paleoethnobotany and paleoecology, and archaeozoology. Limited to students in the Tropical Ecology Program in Panama. This course does not count as an EEB departmental. Prerequisite: EEB 321. Staff EEB 338 - Tropical Biology (also LAS 351) Spring SEL This intensive field course, at various sites in Panama, examines the origins, maintenance, and major interactions among elements of the tropical-terrestrial biota. Study topics include identification of common orders and families of neotropical organisms; tropical climate and hydrology; biotic interactions; and contemporary and historical factors in shaping tropical landscapes, with emphasis on the Isthmian Landbridge and subsequent floral and faunal interactions. Two hours of lecture/discussion, six hours of laboratory, and two hours of data analysis daily. Limited to students in the Tropical Ecology Program in Panama. Prerequisite: 321. Staff ENG 358 - Caribbean Literature and Culture (also AAS 343/AMS 396/LAS 385) CDLA The Caribbean is an archipelago made up of islands that both link and separate the Americas - islands that have weathered various waves of colonization, migration, and revolution. How do narratives of the Caribbean represent the collision of political forces and natural environments? Looking to the many abyssal histories of the Caribbean, we will explore questions of indigeneity, colonial contact, iterations of enslavement, and the plantation matrix in literary texts. How do island-writers evoke gender and a poetics of relation that exceeds tourist desire and forceful extraction? Staff FRE 403 - Topics in Francophone Literature, Culture, and History (also LAS 423) Fall LA This course will study the interrelation of slavery and capitalism in the francophone Caribbean, from the Haitian Revolution to the present. The course will examine a series of classic works that contest French Caribbean colonialism and slavery, from the perspective of the historical transition from late imperialist feudalism to industrial and post-industrial capitalism. Writers addressed will include CLR James, Karl Marx, Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, Eric Williams, Edouard Glissant, and Maryse Condé. F. Nesbitt GSS 302 - Topics in the Study of Gender (also LAS 314) Spring SA Advanced seminar; focus changes from year to year. In general the seminar uses contemporary and classic works of feminist theory to examine ideas about gender that have shaped modern culture. Topics have included feminism and liberalism, literature and ideology, and psychoanalysis and feminism. J. Delgado HIS 303 - Colonial Latin America to 1810 (also LAS 305) Fall HA The principal themes of Iberian imperialism and colonial society from preconquest to the eve of independence. The main issues to be covered will be: Amerindian civilization, the conquest of the Americas, social and cultural change, and evolving economic relations. Two lectures, one preceptorial. V. Candiani HIS 304 - Modern Latin America since 1810 (also LAO 303/LAS 304) Spring HA A survey of Latin America from the wars of independence to recent struggles for democracy. The focus will be on state formation in the 19th century, relations with the world economy, and changing patterns of social and political life in the 20th century. Two lectures, one preceptorial. C. Zeltsman HIS 306 - Becoming Latino in the U.S. (also LAO 306/LAS 326) Spring CDHA The course follows the major themes and issues surrounding the history of Mexican Americans in the United States. It seeks to explain the historical origins of the continuing debates over land ownership, assimilation expectations, discrimination, immigration regulation, and labor disputes. The course focuses primarily on the US citizens created after the Mexican American War and Mexican immigrants to the US. It looks transnationally at Mexico's history to explain US shifts in public opinion and domestic policies. While the course examines the impact of Mexican Americans in many regions of the country, it will focus on those in the Southwest. R. Lozano HIS 408 - Selected Topics in 20th-Century Latin America (also LAS 408) Not offered this year HA Research and reading on topics related to economic development and political change with attention to specific national contexts, such as authoritarian state and society in Argentina and Brazil; revolution and social change in Mexico, Cuba, and Chile; problems in Latin American foreign relations. One three-hour seminar. Staff LAO 200 - Latinos in American Life and Culture (also LAS 336/SOC 341) Not offered this year SA This required gateway course will consider how Latinos are transforming the United States even as they embrace a racialized pan-ethnic identity. Readings expose students to the demographic underpinnings of the dramatic growth and historically unprecedented geographic dispersal, the ethical dilemmas posed by undocumented immigration, the historical and contemporary trends in social, economic, and political participation, and the hybrid cultural imprints forged in musical, literary, and artistic work. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff POL 333 - Latino Politics in the U.S. (also LAO 333/LAS 333/SOC 325) Not offered this year SA The course will explore the personal, political, historical and sacred aspects of Latinas/Latinos in the United States from the perspective of a theory of transformation. The course intends to provide Latinas/Latinos as well as students from all backgrounds the opportunity to see a people in their own midst becoming and being political as they move forward to create a new culture and community in this country. Staff POL 351 - The Politics of Development (also LAS 371/SPI 311) Spring SA A comparative study of politics in selected developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Topics include colonialism, nationalism, class and ethic conflict, political instability, military coups, revolutionary change, and development strategies such as land reforms, green revolution, import substitution, and management of external dependencies. Two lectures, one preceptorial. T. Goyal POL 367 - Latin American Politics (also LAS 367/SPI 367) Not offered this year SA A study of the governments and politics of Latin America. The political systems of the Latin American countries will be examined, as well as the common political problems and processes of the area. Special attention will be given to the role of revolution, military rule, and constitutional democracy in Latin American political development. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff POR 221 - Introduction to the Literature and Culture of the Portuguese-Speaking World (also LAS 223) LA Through readings of selected texts and audiovisual materials, this course introduces students to the diverse cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Discussions focus on Portugal's expansion during early modern times, and the spread of the Portuguese language in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Contemporary issues in several geographic areas will be approached comparatively. Prerequisite: POR 208 or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff POR 300 - Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literary Traditions (also LAS 315) LA This course focuses on works that have been key for shaping the literary tradition of the Portuguese language, from colonial to postcolonial times. Discussions will focus on the intersections between literature, social change, identity, and history in Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa. Prerequisite: POR 208 or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff POR 301 - Modern Brazilian Literature and Culture (also LAS 303) LA A study of 19th- to 21st-century Brazilian texts with the aim of defining the place of Brazilian literature and culture within the context of Latin America and beyond. To include writers like Machado de Assis, Oswald de Andrade, Guimarães Rosa, Drummond, João Cabral, Clarice Lispector, and Caetano Veloso. Prerequisite: POR 208 or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff POR 304 - Topics in Brazilian Cultural and Social History (also LAS 311) LA Through the analysis of literary texts, films, and music, the course will consider cultural responses to the construction of a Brazilian national identity. Possible topics include the Brazilian modernist tradition; contemporary culture and media; the city and literature; poetry and song. Prerequisites: POR 208 or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff POR 319 - Brazilian Cinema (also LAS 319/VIS 346) LA An introduction to the richness of Brazilian film, this course explores major cinematic movements: from the Cinema Novo, to critically acclaimed documentaries and more recent commercial successes like City of God. Recurrent and emerging trends will be discussed (e.g., the destruction of the Amazon, urban violence, literary adaptation, musical expressions). Prerequisite: POR 208 or instructor's permission. One three-hour class. Staff REL 373 - Studies in Religion (also AAS 320/LAS 322) Not offered this year SA A study of a selected topic such as mysticism, scriptures of the world religions, or of particular religious movements, leaders, and thinkers. Staff SOC 210 - Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in the Americas (also LAO 210/LAS 210/URB 210) Fall SA By taking a comparative approach, this course examines the role of social, economic, and political factors in the emergence and transformation of modern cities in the United States and selected areas of Latin America. The class considers the city in its dual image: both as a center of progress and as a redoubt of social problems, especially poverty. Special attention is given to spatial processes that have resulted in the aggregation and desegregation of populations differentiated by social class and race. Two lectures, one preceptorial. P. Fernández-Kelly SOC 248 - Modern Mexican Society (also LAS 248) Not offered this year SA An introduction to the social, political, and economic organization of modern Mexico. The course traces the evolution of Mexico's fundamental institutions from their birth after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, through their flowering during the 1950s and 1960s, to changes in the neoliberal era of the 1980s and 1990s. The course ends with a consideration of Mexico's current position as a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. Massey SOC 309 - Topics in the Sociology of Latin America (also LAS 309) Not offered this year SA A study of selected topics of current interest in the sociology of Latin America. The specific subject matter will vary from year to year, reflecting the changing interests of both faculty and students. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff SOC 310 - Gender and Development in the Americas (also GSS 312/LAS 310) Not offered this year SA An examination of gender as an integral component of socioeconomic development in advanced and less-developed countries, with a focus on the United States and selected areas of Latin America. Special attention will be given to processes of industrial restructuring on a global scale that have increased the participation of women in the formal labor force. An understanding of the relationship between gender inequality and social order will be a central object of inquiry. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff SOC 338 - The Sociology of Latinos in the U.S. (also LAS 338) Not offered this year SA Using detailed studies of four major centers (San Antonio, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York), this course will analyze the historical and contemporary experience of several Spanish-speaking populations. Discussion will focus on two questions: (a) Are there common experiences or characteristics that justify the categorization of these varied groups under a single ethnicity? and (b) What racial, class, and gender divisions exist within these groups? Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. Tienda SPA 222 - Introduction to Latin American Cultures (also LAO 222/LAS 222) Fall CDLA Introduction to modern Latin American cultural and literary traditions with emphasis on the political uses of writing and art, national identity vis-à-vis popular and indigenous groups, memory and representation, the definition of modernity, and trans-American dialogues. The course may focus on national foundational fictions, the literary and artistic avant-gardes of the 1920s and 1960s, Mexican and Peruvian indigenismo, and memory art and cinema. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: SPA 207 or higher, or instructor's permission. Strongly recommended before 300-level courses. Staff SPA 300 - The Literature and Culture of Spain and Colonial Latin America: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque (also LAS 300) LA Through selected texts from Spain and colonial Latin America, the course will explore the formation of a literary tradition in Spanish. The main objective is to foster comparative studies within literatures and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world so as to identify points of contact and differentiation currently defining this field of studies. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Prerequisite: one 200-level Spanish course. Staff SPA 319 - Topics in Cinema and Culture (also LAS 354) LA Major cinematic movements in Latin America and/or Spain: their influence and their relationship to literary and cultural issues. Possible topics include: the art of adaptation of narrative to film or Spanish surrealism. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: 207 or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 331 - Modern Latin American Fiction (also LAS 331) LA Major themes, forms, and techniques in Latin American novels and short stories. Close analysis of texts by Borges, Rulfo, García Márquez, Bolaño, Vallejo, and others. Consideration will be given to historical contexts and contemporary ideological currents. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 332 - Modern Latin American Poetry (also LAS 332) LA An introduction to the major poets and poetic trends in modern Latin America and the Caribbean, with emphasis on Martí, Darío, Huidobro, Vallejo, Mistral, Neruda, Palés Matos, Borges, and Saer. Special attention also to the rich oral traditions represented by popular genres such as boleros, tango, nueva canción and rock, and particularly the work of Silvio Rodríguez, Violeta Parra, Rubén Blades, Tite Curet Alonso, and Charly García available in audio recordings or videos. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or equivalent. Staff SPA 342 - Topics in Latin American Modernity (also LAS 342) Fall LA The development of cultural patterns and literary forms in Spanish America since the late 19th century. Topics may include: the importance of oral traditions and popular music in forging identities; the literary and ideological import of modernismo, travel literature in the 19th century; and the avant-garde movements of the 1920s. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 343 - The Invention of Latin American Traditions (also LAS 343) LA Fundamental texts of Spanish American literature from colonial times to the present. In a given semester the course could focus on works by Garcilaso, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sarmiento, José Hernandez, Martí, Borges, Mariátegui, Palés Matos, Henríquez Ureña, or Lezama Lima. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 344 - Literature and Society in Early Latin America (also LAS 344) LA This seminar studies literary, legal, and historical writings in relation to such topics as imperialism and colonialism, the image of the "Indian," cultural identities, and rhetoric and politics, from the writings of Columbus and the cartographic imagination to the formation of the new criollo culture in the vice-regal city. Texts from the following authors will be carefully analyzed: Cortés, Cabeza de Vaca, Las Casas, Garcilaso de la Vega, Huaman Poma, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 345 - Topics in Latin American Literature and Ideology (also LAS 345) LA Latin American and Caribbean thought from 1800 to the present, focusing on the conflicting cultural and ideological assumptions of liberalism and nationalism. Topics might include slavery and literature, the writing of history, the intellectuals and power, or the writings of some major figures such as Bolívar, Hostos, Martí, Mariátegui, Fernando Ortiz, or Paz. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 346 - Modern Latin American Fiction in Translation (also COM 346/LAS 364) LA Readings and discussion of authors such as Machado de Assis, Cortázar, Lispector, García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, and Puig, considered in relation to the cultures of Latin America and to trends of modern European and American fiction. Does not count as a departmental course for Spanish majors unless readings and papers are done in Spanish. Three hour lecture. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. R. Gallo SPA 348 - Fictions and Communities in the Andes (also LAS 348) Not offered this year LA How is the complexity of the Andes imagined or resolved in its literatures? This seminar will study the plurality of narrations and communities that constitute the Andean world, focusing primarily on Peru and two of its major intellectual movements in the 20th century: the indigenismo and the criollo urban literature. Aspects of the Afro-Peruvian narratives will also be studied. Major authors discussed include: Ricardo Palma, Clorinda Matto, González Prada, Mariátegui, Arguedas, Vargas Llosa, Bryce, Ribeyro, Gregorio Martínez. Conducted in Spanish. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 350 - Topics in Latin American Cultural Studies (also LAS 349) Fall LA A course focusing on elements of Latin American culture that left a strong mark on the history, literature, and arts of the region. Recent topics include the representation of Che Guevara in novels, film, and photography; the literary response to Tango in Argentina; the impact of the invention of radio in avant-garde poetry. The course will emphasize the connections between history, literature, arts, and visual culture of the region. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff SPA 401 - Topics in Hispanic Culture (Europe and America) (also LAS 428) LA Possible topics might include: modernity, empire, and colonialism, European travel literature in Latin America, the encounter of Latin America, and North American cultural traditions. One three-hour seminar. Prerequisite: a 300-level Spanish course or instructor's permission. Staff THR 252 - Topics in Dramaturgical and Performance Analysis (also GSS 244/LAO 252/LAS 242) Spring LA This seminar offers an intensive introduction to the principles and practices of dramaturgical and performance analysis of stage plays as written works, as blueprints for theatrical performance, and as exercises in worldmaking. This seminar also rehearses how the techniques of dramaturgical and performance analysis might be applied to modes of embodied enactment - whether historical or contemporary, whether in art or everyday life - beyond the theatrical frame. In Spring 2025, the course will focus on the life, work, and legacy of the pathbreaking Cuban-American playwright, director, designer, and teacher María Irene Fornés (1930-2018). B. Herrera
